FFVII Xi Era Saeculum Apostasiae
by Anguipes Seraph
Summary: 2000 years after FF7. Humanity lives in cities shielded against the ferocious natural cycle of growth that can swallow unprotected settlements in months, and electricity is strictly rationed. Only the mysterious Apostasy live outside the shields...
1. The Fool

**Disclaimer:** The FFVII world is the property of Square-Enix, as are all names, locations and terms where appropriate. I am a filthy rotten copyright infringing thief. But equally, I feel owed for having bought Dirge of Cerberus.  
**Warnings:** Language, violence, religious themes  
**Card:** The Fool.  
**Summary:** An archaeological dig incurs the wrath of an ancient Planetary guardian… and what does the mysterious group known as the Apostasy have to do with it?  
**Comments:**_Get out of my mind, Frank Herbert!_

For a brief introduction and an explanation of the "religious themes" warning, see the end of this chapter. I would have put it in a separate chapter, but that's against the site guidelines, so…

This being a rather different sort of fanfic, centred entirely around OCs, I honestly don't know whether I should be inflicting it on people. I don't usually beg for reviews, but if you'd like to see more of this work please drop me review so I can judge whether there is any interest in this sort of thing.

**Chapter I**

_solitudinem faciunt, pacem appellant - Tacitus_  
"They make a desert, and call it peace"

** ν — Era 20030315**

"How far is this place anyway?"

"Yeah, and how do we know there's anything there? You sure this isn't some kind of setup, boss?"

"My suit's too tight."

"Well, mine's too tight and it itches."

"Yeah, we'll never be able to fight in these things."

"You're just not used to 'em. They're not that bad. Besides, fancy your chances out there without it?"

"Hell no."

There was a heavy thump on the panel between the cramped cargo area and the driver's compartment.

"Ah, stop your whining back there!"

That got a half-hearted mumble of assent from the dozen men in the hold. A job was a job, after all, and finding materia wasn't easy at the best of times. Finding it, removing it in a useful state, and getting it back to civilisation was even harder. That was why people were willing to pay so much. And why it was worth going after, even if it did mean trekking deep into the desert. There were worse places.

The transport skimmed over the dunes, a tiny dark dot against the vast expanse of white, throwing up clouds of choking sand in its wake.

It was observed.

ooAoAoUoo

A small camp had been set up in the shadow of the huge cliff face by the time they arrived. An advance group had gone ahead – no use in moving this many men into unknown territory on a hunch and the word of the Apostasy. According to the briefing they had received from their employers, early communications had reported back encouragingly; the camp wasn't attracting any wildlife that couldn't be handled and brief sorties into the caverns behind the rock face had revealed the telltale green glow and distinctive smell indicative of mako.

Kenan Danes dismounted the transport lightly, barked the order to join camp at the men emerging from the rear of the vehicle, and tried not to be too self-conscious adjusting his survival suit. The things could be a devil to fight in, but they kept out the worst of the heat and the sand and kept you from dehydrating.

He scanned the camp; brown tents and brown suits against red-brown rock in the dying light. It didn't look like they were going to have any defence problems up here at least. One side a against a sheer cliff, small perimeter already guarded by the barriers set up against sandstorms, not many monsters around… worst case scenario was if some well equipped pirates got wind of the dig and came by air over the cliffs… setting up on sand wasn't great, but it reached right up to the sheer rock and there was little other option…

The soldier spotted the tent he was looking for. As he approached he started to hear scraps of conversation from the small knot of men hunched over the equipment set up outside.

"…down there. Sonar scans are showing a couple of big caverns, maybe…"

"…anything moving…?"

"Preliminary scans show some big patches. Probably swarms of whatever, doesn't read like a single creature, but whatever it is I'm not sending anyone down there without backup."

"Hmm… always the way, always the way. Well, we'll be sending a preliminary expedition down tomorrow to take a look at the place. And considering we have… ah, our backup."

The man turned and Kenan pulled off a smart salute, noting "head of expedition" and, most likely, "archaeologist". Middle aged, probably able to hold his own against most of what could come after you outside the cities, not to be taken too lightly so soon, but not a military man.

"Danes reporting, sir!"

"Alright, stand easy, or whatever it is you military types say."

Kenan relaxed slightly. Behind the archaeologist, the other two men continued to mutter over various charts and readings.

"I'm Dr. Leito. In charge around here, but I'm sure you've been briefed at least that much." The man gave Kenan a questioning look.

"Yessir." Yes, this one knew what he was doing, unlike a couple of dig masters he'd been unfortunate enough to work with. The doctor pinched the bridge of his nose, and continued.

"It should be a simple enough operation. Clear out the caves as best as possible, provide security for the camp, and the workers while they're down there. If we find anything that is, but things are looking very promising and, well, Apostates are seldom wrong. Anyway, I'm sure you wouldn't be here if the PEF hadn't offered you something up front."

Well, that was true enough. "Yessir. Anything else I should know about, sir?"

"Well, we don't yet know what's down there, so I'm sure I don't need to tell you to exercise caution. And…" he paused, giving Kenan a look that was half calculating, half sympathetic, "have you ever worked with Apostates before?"

"They… there are Apostates actually here?" the soldier shifted uneasily, and frowned. "That… wasn't in the briefing. How many?"

"Just two. They never travel alone. So… never worked with them, hm?"

"Not personally. Not closely, at any rate. But you don't spend much time in the mercenary business without running into them at some point. I _have _seen them fight. They're… good. But to be frank, they creep the hell out of me. Sir."

Leito laughed.

" "Good", eh? There's an understatement. And enough with the "sir". "Dr. Leito" is fine." He sighed. "The Apostates… don't ask me why they're here. Probably just looking for something to fight. If the Apostasy didn't want us here they wouldn't have said anything to the Foundation in the first place, so I doubt they're a threat. Despite their reputation, they usually aren't."

"So… are they actually working with you, or just hanging around?"

"Tough to tell, with Apostates. They've agreed to join our preliminary expedition into the deeper caverns, so let's hope it's the former."

"I see. How many on this expedition?"

"As few as possible. I'll be going – don't look at me like that, I can handle myself just fine – Marcus over there," he gestured over his shoulder to one of the men studying the sonar scanning readouts "he's one of our surveyors, the Apostates, as I said, and yourself or one of your men. Don't expect the Apostates to report to you about what it's like down there, and neither Marcus nor myself are soldiers. Best that you people see for yourself, hm?"

"That's not many at all… what if we run into trouble?"

"We plan on backing out as just soon as anything starts to look nasty. Let the Apostates fight if that's what they're after, they can hold off near enough anything at least long enough to let the rest of us escape. We may not be their responsibility, but they sure as hell aren't ours either."

Kenan nodded once.

"Alright… well, if there's nothing else, with your permission I'll go and assign watch duties to my men. And warn them about the Apostates." That was going to be interesting. Opinion of Apostates was always divided; wariness, fear, anger, even admiration…

"Very well then. We should be going in early tomorrow if everything goes to plan, so be sure to get some rest, hm?" With that, the doctor turned back to the two surveyors.

ooAoAoUoo

** ν — Era 20030316**

"Entrance was under the sand level, we had to dig a bit and use the storm shields to keep it clear. Don't worry, it's perfectly secure, and even something did go wrong, which it won't, we've got people on this side to dig us out…"

Kenan grunted noncommittally as he checked his guns. The surveyor, Marcus, sat cross-legged on the sand, crosschecking various scans and instruments and producing a steady stream of chatter. Maybe he was nervous. Maybe he was just a talker. Whichever it was, Kenan was secretly glad of it; he'd never admit it, but silence made him edgy. Growing up in the cities you got used to a constant background hum – people, machinery, whatever.

"…there should be a pretty easy route down to one of the main chambers, at least according to our scans, that's where we'll be headed. As long as we don't run into anything, heheh… oh, ah, Doctor…"

Marcus jumped to his feet and distractedly brushed some sand off his suit as Dr. Leito approached.

"Ready to go, Doctor. I've worked out what should be the easiest route down to the chamber we decided on, and several alternatives in case something unexpected turns up. Programmed it all into the nav unit, so, um, yeah. Good to go."

Leito just nodded shortly, and turned to Kenan.

"Ah, so you have decided to come along personally… Danes, wasn't it? Good, good. Have you prepared?"

"Ready to go when you are, sir. I mean, Doctor."

The doctor smiled a little tiredly, and ran a hand through his hair.

"Hmm, good. That just leaves…"

There was a crunch of boots on sand, close, and Kenan's head snapped around to the sound on instinct. How had anyone managed to get that near without…

Apostates. Two of them, like Dr. Leito had said, forms completely hidden under black robes. Even their faces were lost in shadow under deep hoods. The effect was deeply disconcerting. It gave the impression of there being nothing under there at all…

…_they say those things are cursed. Hanging around all the old cities like ghosts…_

…_what d'ya reckon they're hidin' under those robes, eh? Everyone says they're hideous mutants…_

…_they never talk, I heard. Just look at you like they're staring straight into your head…_

_…the PEF captured one once, ages ago. Took it to one of those out of the way facilities. Well, after a few days, they suddenly lost all contact with the place. When they got there they found everyone dead. Torn apart, blood all over the walls…_

_…the strongest ones could take out an entire army without a scratch. That's how all those ancient cities were destroyed…_

_...they can sense materia, right? And mako, even deep underground. No wonder the Foundation are trying to…_

"…Well, I guess that's everyone, hm?" Leito's voice cut through Kenan's thoughts, and he blinked. He knew most of the rumours were crazy. He'd seen Apostates, he'd seen them fight, albeit from a distance, and they didn't fight in their robes. They were perfectly human underneath. All right, they were stronger and faster and somehow more focused than ordinary humans, and they kept themselves to themselves and followed some weirdo religion, but they weren't monsters.

Probably.

He looked over the two Apostates again. The taller one was probably just under two meters, and there was the distinct impression of a broad frame under the robes. The second, stood slightly behind the first, barely came up to the other's shoulders and was slight enough that the details of his, or maybe her, frame were hidden by the heavy robes. How could they stand to wear those things in this heat?

"This is your party?" the taller Apostate said, the empty-looking hood shifting over the three of them and coming to a rest facing Dr. Leito. His voice was soft, almost a murmur, and something about the slight muffling of the hood made it sound as if it was coming from a distance.

"Yes," Leito began. "You know who I am, this is…"

The Apostate cut him off with a gesture.

"Introductions are unnecessary."

For a moment the doctor looked like he was going to give a sharp reply, but obviously thought better of it.

"Well then. Whenever you two are ready."

The Apostate looked down at his companion, who just nodded once.

"We are ready. Lead the way."

ooAoAoUoo

He shouldn't have assumed it would be any cooler down here. Kenan wiped at the sweat dripping off his face and tried to concentrate on Marcus' steady commentary on their path rather than the stifling heat. The stillness of the air made the place feel like an oven.

"Gets a bit tight up ahead, we'll need to go in single file for a bit. After that it opens out into a bit of a cavern, no one's actually been down there or any further yet, so we should be extra careful from then on…"

The faint glow from the walls was slowly closing in on them. Just as Marcus had said, soon they were forced into going single file, the two Apostates at the front, Marcus and Dr. Leito after them, and Kenan guarding the rear. Tactically sound maybe, but it didn't stop him feeling uneasy that all he could see ahead was the dark silhouettes of the Apostates. Well, at least anything coming from out of unexplored territory would hit them first.

Was there anything down here? The air seemed too still. And the Apostates didn't seem to be expecting a fight, still robed and hooded as they were. Why did that thought make him even more uneasy?

Probably because he had a nasty feeling they knew something he didn't. He was getting the creeping impression that he'd walked into something that was bigger than anyone around him was letting on.

"The cavern should be coming up in just a bit… there, um, might be a bit of a drop, so, um, watch your step…" Marcus trailed off. The Apostates ahead gave him no acknowledgement.

They stopped.

"It's only about ten feet according to the scans, but if there's no easy way up or down…"

The Apostates both disappeared out of view to the right.

Marcus edged up cautiously to where they had been, and peered around in the dim light from the walls.

"Hey, there are stairs… damn, these must be old."

"So, this place was once inhabited, hm?" Dr. Leito muttered, coming up behind him. Kenan followed. The passage opened out into small cavern, with only a narrow ledge falling away into the darkness where the path had once been. Down to the right a rough stairway had been carved into the wall, the steps faintly outlined by mako glow in the rocks.

The two Apostates were waiting at the base of the stairs, both looking towards the far end of the cavern. Kenan found himself following their gaze. A pulsing light was coming through a large cleft in the wall there; there had to be something lighting the chamber beyond. Materia? But he'd never seen materia glow that strongly…

"Incredible…" Leito breathed. "Well well, the Apostasy are full of…"

There was a rustling off to the right, and an odd chirping. A delicate creature emerged from a dark crevice in the rock above them; a thin, serpentine body twisting through the air, held aloft on translucent, membranous wings. It turned its head towards the group, hissed menacingly, gave a strong beat of its wings propelling it across the cavern…

Kenan let his instincts take over. He draw a gun, aimed carefully around the join between the wings and the body, and pulled the trigger.

The creature gave a short shriek and dropped out of the air. It writhed briefly on the ground, then lay still.

There was a moment of tension, but no other sounds. Kenan lowered his weapon.

"Hey, nice shot."

"Well, I am good for some things."

A shape detached itself from the ceiling at the far end of the cavern. Then another, and another, and then the whole far ceiling gave way in a mass of twisting, shrieking bodies that caught themselves just before hitting the ground and surged forward on powerful wingbeats. Yet more poured out of high crevices, and the only way to any exits involved going towards the mob…

"Keep still," a female voice said calmly. Kenan found himself obeying despite his every instinct to dart for the nearest exit. It was their only chance, there was no way they could deal with this many, there must be hundreds of the things…

The leading beast, almost on them, burst into flames, and with an incredible blast of heat the fire filled the cavern from that point forward. It looked like the air had been set ablaze. The roar and the shrieking of dying creatures was deafening.

It only lasted a couple of seconds, then the blaze faded leaving only charred corpses the overpowering stink of burnt flesh. The shorter Apostate lowered her hand.

"Whoa…" Kenan and Marcus both managed to choke out simultaneously. Kenan tried to blink the fumes and sweat out of his eyes. There was no way he had just seen that. Magic might be powerful, but it wasn't_ that _powerful… Just who were these two?

"What a stench," murmured the taller Apostate, with a trace of amusement. "You should have used something else, _akhoti_." His companion laughed.

They both set off towards the glow at the far end of the cavern, with a swish of robes and the occasional unpleasant crunch of ash underfoot. The three remaining men stared dumbly after them.

"The infamous Apostate elite… the _Yeledim Gehenna_…" Dr. Leito eventually muttered. He shook his head slightly. "Alright, that was close. But we're here now, and I doubt anything will be coming at us after that, hm?" He set off after the Apostates. Marcus gave something between a laugh and whimper, and followed, and Kenan went after him.

The chamber beyond was breathtaking. There had to be enough materia to power a small city, in vast stalagmites and veins in the walls, filling the place with a soft green glow. The stuff must have collected over centuries, maybe even millennia. The air was cooler here, and there was the faint sound of water… a mako fountain, bubbling up from the depths of the earth and forming a small pool of vibrant liquid in an alcove in the rocks.

Kenan tried to keep at least half an eye on the exit as Marcus and Dr. Leito busied themselves with investigating the chamber. The two Apostates were by the mako pool, and as he looked over to them the female knelt down and briefly dipped a hand into the green liquid. She then looked up to her companion and said something Kenan didn't quite catch. He looked away before either of them caught him watching them.

After several minutes of excited muttering between Marcus and Leito, the doctor laughed and turned to the Apostates.

"Well, well, well… you people certainly know how to buy off the Foundation, don't you? I'll have to recommend a full investigation of this place right away. The materia here alone makes this site invaluable, and the carvings underneath could take years of study. Let alone anything else we might find in this complex."

Kenan took another look at the walls. Now that he knew what he was looking for he could make out rough, faint shapes that he'd previously taken as part of the natural roughness of the rock. And… buy off the Foundation?

"So… just what is this place?" he asked. Dr. Leito turned to him.

"Well… difficult to say _what_ at this stage. But I do have reason to believe these carving date from early Mu-Era, maybe even late Lambda-Era. In other words, this site is around four thousand years old. Quite a find, we could…"

The ground lurched, dislodging a fine rain of dust from the ceiling.

"What the…? Well, it might be prudent to return to camp at this point. No time to waste getting this dig underway, hm?"

The cavern started to shake, and the air filled with a distant rumbling. There was a crash from somewhere in the tunnels.

"Shit, why now?" Marcus cursed. "This could cause a cave in! We have to get out of here!"

A flash of black crossed Kenan's vision; the Apostates were already moving. He didn't think twice about following them. When even Apostates thought it was best to retreat, you didn't hang around to find out why.

The path ahead blurred with the shaking, and it was almost impossible to move fast and stay balanced. More than once Kenan found himself stumbling, or thrown painfully against a wall. The ever present rumbling was growing louder, drowning out everything but the sound of his own hard breathing. It was all he could do to keep up with the dark figures ahead of him through the sharp turns of the labyrinth of tunnels.

The tremors stopped almost as suddenly as they had started. The Apostates stopped abruptly soon after, and Kenan skidded to a halt to avoid running into them. He braced himself with a hand against the rock and bent over double, trying to catch his breath. To his relief, there were hurrying footsteps just behind him. He looked up and saw Leito and Marcus stop beside him.

"Where… are we?" he gasped.

"How should I know?" Marcus panted. "We were following you!"

"Well, I was following _them_."

"We're nearly out," the female Apostate stated simply, looking back at them over her shoulder.

"How would you kn…"

"We have an excellent sense of direction," the male cut in calmly.

"Doesn't anything get to those people or something?" Marcus muttered quietly as the Apostates started to walk away from them. He set off after them.

"Uh… are you two alright?" Kenan asked.

"Just a few knocks, nothing serious," Dr. Leito replied. "Come on, we don't want to be caught down here if another tremor hits."

There was daylight at the end of the tunnel around the next bend, just a short walk away. When they reached the exit, sand was pouring steadily in – the barriers must have been damaged in the quake. They scrambled up the bank of sand and back into…

Nothing. Where the camp had been was just a blank expanse of sand. Aside from the buckled barriers keeping sand out of the cavern entrance, nothing. No tents, no equipment, no people…

"What the _hell_?"

Both Marcus and Leito rushed forwards. Kenan just stood and stared. This… couldn't be right. They had to have come out at the wrong place. But… were there any other exits? And the barriers…

He looked around for the Apostates, and the world clicked into slow motion. They had moved along the cliff wall, one to the left, one to the right. And the way they moved… they were preparing to attack. He closed his eyes and reached for his guns as slowly as he dared, trying not to think about the fact that it would be utterly hopeless, they were too powerful.

The sand gave way beneath his feet, and he jumped backwards, his eyes snapping open. Where Marcus and Leito had been was a hissing, raging whirlpool of sand, and the edge of it had just missed him. If he had been a few feet further forward… The ground was shaking too, but an earthquake didn't do _that_…

Two enormous grey tentacles exploded out of the ground, showering sand everywhere. Kenan spat some out of his mouth, then had the throw himself face first onto the sand as one of the tentacles flailed overhead. He rolled over and pulled himself up onto one knee just in time to see a flash of black and silver, and the tip of the tentacle fall neatly severed onto the sand, oozing mako-green ichor. As he tried to get up the violent, pained thrashing of what remained caught him in the chest, throwing him right back against the cliff face. Through blurred vision he saw the injured limb retreat beneath the sand again. Looking to the left, he saw another blurred motion and the tentacle there, already splattering green onto the sand, whipped down into ground after its twin.

The two Apostates stopped eerily still, bracing themselves. They were out of their robes now – when had that happened? – and underneath were wearing black light armour. They were both armed with blades, a long, two handed one for the male and two shorter ones for the female. Sunlight glinted off the metal, and stranger, off the pair's hair: both had pure silver hair.

There was another rumble, and the ground trembled.

A wall of red rose out of the desert.

Kenan tried to press himself back into the cliff wall. The thing was huge, throwing a shadow over the whole area. A small head on a snakelike neck swayed back and forth over and immense body, all enormous feet and colossal clawed hands.

The Apostates were only visible as blurs of motion and flashes of blades as they fought, jumping up over the creature's carapace with impossible displays of balance and athletics. The thing was amazingly fast for its size, but apparently not fast enough. Before long it was oozing green from two huge gashes, and patches of its hide were burnt black.

A flailing hand caught one of the Apostates full on, hurling him to the ground only a few feet away from where Kenan was trying to make himself as inconspicuous as possible. His weapon landed a little way away, sticking deep into the sand before vanishing into black smoke. The other immediately jumped back from the fight, and ran towards where he was lying, still.

He choked up black gunge onto the sand, and staggered to his feet. Kenan felt the hairs on the back of his neck rise. No one could have survived a blow like that…

The air around the Apostate shimmered like a heat haze, and a column of transparent blue flame shot up around him towards the heavens. The sky seemed to darken as he gestured towards the monster, and a similar column on energy shot down and engulfed it. The thing roared deafeningly in pain, thrashing in the sand and finally diving under the ground away from the attack. A rapidly moving furrow of sand and a fading rumble marked its retreat. The blue fire disappeared, and the sky brightened again.

Dark energy still flickered around the Apostate. He collapsed forward briefly, clutching his head in his hands, then caught himself and straightened up. The aura didn't fade.

"Gedulah!"

There was an edge of warning in the female's voice, and more than a hint of fear. He turned a cold gaze on her, and raised a hand.

He stopped. His companion had put one of her swords right through his heart.

Even that didn't seem to affect him much. He started to pull back off the blade with a snarl. The second blade flashed around…

There was an odd moment of disconnection. The Apostate was gone, and the air was full of black feathers. They floated gently down, dissolving into nothing as they hit the sand.

Kenan staggered forward. In a daze he reached out and caught one of the feathers. It dissolved as soon as it touched his hand.

He had to be dreaming. This… wasn't real. He was dreaming, or hallucinating, or… something.

_Aeternam habeas requiem._

He could hear voices, very faint, a long way away…

_Haec sunt verba Matris nostrae ad Filium suum:_

…they were singing, or chanting. He couldn't understand what they were saying…

_Habeas requiem usque ad adventum novissimum._

He must have got heat stroke. That was it. This was all some fevered dream, and he'd wake up any second. If it was a dream, none of this was real. Everyone wasn't gone. Marcus. Leito. Everyone in the camp.

His team. His friends.

His legs gave out from under him and he slumped onto the sand, fighting the urge to throw up. They were all gone…

He was stuck in the desert with no food, only one canteen of water, no way to signal for help, no idea what direction to go.

Surely the Foundation would check on the camp when they realised they weren't getting any communications?

How long would that be? It could be days. They'd put the lack of communications down to equipment failure.

It wouldn't be before that thing came back.

He was stirred out of his reverie by the crunch of sand. The remaining Apostate was walking away. Kenan pulled himself up and shouted after her.

"Hey! You can't just leave! Do you even know where you're going? You can't just wander around out here, you'll die!"

It didn't make much sense, but the whole world wasn't making much sense. The Apostate stopped.

"It's only a two day walk out of the desert if you know the way. I have no need to stay here."

She flung both arms out in a sharply controlled motion, and the swords she was holding vanished. Sheets of pure darkness wrapped themselves around her, reforming her robes. She lowered her arms, and set off across the sand again.

Kenan considered for a second. Two days… it was possible. Better than staying here. If he was going to die, he might as well die trying.

He set off after her.

ooAoAoUoo

**General Author Rambling**

The plot bunnies have me again.

So, this is my far-future vision of the FFVII world, based on a good seven years or more of pondering (read: being dangerously obsessed by) the events of FFVII and their possible long-term consequences. As things get going, it may not be entirely what you'd expect... There's an insane amount of preparation (read: procrastination) I've done for this fic, including a 4000 year timeline co-ordinating two dating systems, a glossary of terms and several midi arrangements and compositions.

Yet, I'm still not sure anyone will actually want to read this. All OCs, vastly changed world, etc. Everything will eventually connect back into FFVII, and there will be several references to FFVII and its characters, but you'll have to read between the lines to spot most of them.

Ah well, if you have read all that, please give the story a try, and write a review if you like it!

**Rating and Warnings**

Warnings: Language, Violence, Religious themes (see below)

This fic will not go above T rating. However, there is a specific warning issue I wish to address.

This work will at times quote or reference texts and concepts of various religions, including but not limited to Christianity and Judaism. The Bible (in original Hebrew and Greek, the Catholic Vulgate, and English translations), the Kaddish, the Catholic Mass, various concepts of the Qabala, and others will all appear, either as chapter heading quotes or within the story itself. Words from the Hebrew language are also occasionally employed.

My use of these is in no way an attempt to insult, degrade or imply or incite any negative feeling towards any belief or group. However, if you feel uncomfortable at the idea of holy texts and concepts being employed in the context of fanfiction, avoid this story.


	2. The High Priestess

**Disclaimer:** The FFVII world is the property of Square-Enix, as are all names, locations and terms where appropriate. I am a filthy rotten copyright infringing thief.  
**Warnings:** Language, violence, religious themes  
**Card:** The High Priestess.  
**Summary:** Memories, and getting out of the desert.  
**Comments:** Writing might slow up for a bit as I play FFXII (pity us Brits and our PAL). As ever, please review if you have time and inclination, and thanks to all reviewers / people who have put this on their favourites or alert lists so far.

**Chapter II**

_Yitgaddal v'yitqaddash sh'meh rabba b'al'ma di v'ra khiruteh - Opening of the Kaddish Yatom_  
"May His great Name grow exalted and sanctified in the world that He created as He willed."

** ν — Era 20030316**

_Crunch… crunch…_

The heat and the silence were getting unbearable. The ache in Kenan's legs was starting to overpower everything else, even the dryness in his mouth and the pain from where he'd been flung against the rock.

_Crunch… crunch…_

He watched the dark cloak swish across the sand a few paces in front of him. The Apostate didn't seem to object to him following her, at least. Or, she hadn't said anything about it. Or anything at all.

_Crunch… crunch…_

She was… young. For some reason that had struck him when he'd seen her. He'd expected someone older from the voice. Did she really know what she was doing? Could she really survive on her own out here? The other one had seemed to be the one in charge…

She had killed him. Without hesitation.

But they had seemed on good terms, from the few words he'd heard the two exchange.

Just what had _happened _back there?

_Crunch… crunch…_

They were following the cliff face… north, he guessed. What was north of the desert? Not much. Vana, but that was well off over the mountains. Costa Nova must be about the same distance to the east, but that was desert all the way. Where else was there? Muspel to the south-east, but going there would take them right through the heart of the desert.

Two days to get out of the desert, the Apostate had said. How long after that before he got back to civilisation?

He would cross that bridge when he came to it. It wasn't as if he didn't know how to survive outside the city-shields, after all. It was easy as long as you knew how to find clean water and shelter, and what not to eat under any circumstances. Which was most things.

_Crunch… crunch…_

He was pretty sure the heat was getting to him.

_Crunch… crunch…_

"Hey. Where are we headed, exactly?"

No response.

_Crunch… crunch…_

"You _do _know where you're going, right?"

No response.

_Crunch… crunch…_

"You could at least tell me your name."

"Shekinah."

Kenan nearly tripped over his feet.

"R…really?" he blurted lamely. "Well, I'm Kenan."

That got a barely perceptible nod.

"You… don't talk much, do you?"

Shekinah shrugged.

"I have little to talk about with _Yeledim ha'Aretz_. We rarely have much in common."

"With… what? You're talking about me, right? Well… we have something in common now, don't we? We're both stuck out here."

The Apostate appeared to be considering that as they walked.

"I…suppose that is true."

ooAoAoUoo

Kenan trudged along in silence again. He had tried to keep his spirits up thinking about what he would do when he got back to civilisation. Have a long cold drink or several of something brain destroyingly alcoholic was high on the list. And a bath. Not just a shower. An actual bath. How long had it been since he'd had a bath? And then…

And then an odd, hollow voice in the back of his mind has said: _start writing letters._

_Shit._

Shepton… he'd always been "Shepton", never "Darren", for some reason… he had a wife and two kids. Never shut up about them.

Martin had got engaged… three, four months ago? He and his girl were both saving up for the wedding…

Kyle wrote to his parents religiously, every week. So did Vaughn, though he would probably garrotte anyone who brought it up within earshot of him.

…_past tense, past tense…_

Adrian was a huge guy, but he moved like a cat. Got edgy in tight spaces too. Nicholas was quiet, but one of the best snipers he'd ever seen. Kristof was from over in Svartalf, broad and cheerful and you couldn't understand a word he was saying sometimes. Rhys was the group's medic, and was in a permanent light-hearted slanging match with Eddie, who never seemed to be without a cigarette. Aiden was always joking, as well as having the miraculous ability to procure alcohol just about anywhere. He'd trust Dominic with his life, just not with his wallet. Joe was… Joe was…

_Fuck._

What the hell was he going to say? Sorry, your son / brother / significant other got dragged under the sand and smothered by a desert monster the size of an apartment block?

Who would even _believe_ him?

He had that horrible urge to throw up again.

"Hey, uh, Shekinah. What are you going to do when we get out of this?"

"I must report to the Apostasy," she replied bluntly.

Well, that made sense. But the only Apostate places were way up north…

"You're going all the way to the Northern Continent? On your own? That's insane!"

"I don't see how it is any of your concern."

That made Kenan pause. Why did he care? She was an Apostate. They didn't care about anyone except themselves. But… if it wasn't for Apostates, he'd already be dead three times over today. They might not have done it _for_ him, but still.

If it wasn't for Apostates he wouldn't be in this mess in the first place.

"Yeah, well why am I any of your concern? You could have just left me, but you didn't."

"You are the one who chose to follow."

"And you're the one going at a speed I can keep up with."

To his surprise, Shekinah laughed.

"You are… observant."

"So, why?"

There were a few seconds of silence. Then:

"Your death would serve no purpose."

"What the hell is that supposed to mean? What about everyone else back there? Did their deaths have any "purpose"?"

"That was… unfortunate. But they have returned to the _Nahar__haKhayim_. Any other death would have had the same result, in the long term."

"The _nahar_ _hakhayim_? You mean the Lifestream, don't you? What good is that? That's just how life is broken down and… and… _recycled_! They're still _gone_!"

His words were swallowed up by the open desert, and Kenan realised he had stopped to yell at the retreating figure ahead of him. He kicked at the sand in frustration and hurried after her, his whole body protesting. They continued in silence for a few minutes.

"The Planet remembers," Shekinah murmured. Kenan looked up from sullenly watching his boots drag in the sand.

"What?"

"The Planet remembers. The _khayim_ may flow and cycle, but the pattern remains deep in the memory of the world. The Planet forgets nothing. It that way, nothing truly dies."

Kenan blinked a few times. Was that what the Apostates believed? There was something about the way she had said it, quiet and almost sad. It had sounded like something important. Was she, in her own way, trying to make him feel better?

"The Planet remembers… everything?"

"Everything that has lived and returned to the _khayim_, the Planet remembers."

"The Planet can do that?"

"Yes."

The Planet remembers, Kenan thought. But even if it did, it wasn't as if the Planet _cared_.

ooAoAoUoo

The sun had sunk behind the cliffs, granting some shade though it hadn't yet gone down entirely. The whole world, the sand, the rocks, the sky, had gone blood red. Or maybe it was just his eyes, Kenan thought, and the heat and exhaustion and dehydration.

Maybe… maybe he should have a drink. But there was already less than half the water left. He shouldn't… they'd be stopping for the freezing desert night soon, he'd take a drink then. But if he didn't he might not make it that far. His vision was blurred, he noted dispassionately. Dizzy. Stumbling. Head pounding. If he stopped now, he wasn't sure he'd be able to set off again.

Had to keep going. Then, rest for the night, then only one more day, right? As long as he could keep following Shekinah…

How long was she going last? She hadn't drunk anything at all. And any normal person would have been exhausted even before she started walking; after all, she had used more than enough magic to cause most people to pass out down in the caves, then been in the most intense fight he had ever seen. And however powerful Apostates might be, nothing could live off thin air. Just how far could an Apostate push themselves before they succumbed?

The image of the other Apostate, Gedulah, flashed across his consciousness. Flickering with power, expression twisted into a cold sneer. A shiver ran down his spine.

How long before they just went crazy?

He remembered something… where had he heard it? When?

Apostates never travel alone. Always at least in pairs. It's so if one of 'em goes nuts, there'll be someone around strong enough to take 'em out.

Suddenly, Kenan felt horribly alone.

The red sky slowly faded to dull brown, and finally to blue-black speckled with stars. Then the chill started to creep up, accompanied by a wind that whipped stinging grey grit into Kenan's face. The blurred shape ahead of him showed no signs of stopping.

"Don't…" he gasped, then stopped to cough out some sand. "Don't you need to rest?"

"No." The response was flat.

"No… no way. You have to need rest some time! No food, no drink, no rest… how are you still _standing_? You'll kill yourself if you keep going like this! What… what the hell am I supposed to do then?"

"I will be fine. This body is incorruptible."

"What… what? What is _that_ supposed to mean? You're getting delirious."

"We keep going."

There was an edge to her voice then, and Kenan felt a shudder run through him that had nothing to do with the night chill. He was going to die out here. Because he passed out from exhaustion or dehydration or because he couldn't keep up or because Shekinah's estimate of two days hadn't involved stopping at all or because he got killed by a crazy Apostate, it didn't matter.

He felt something scrape against his shoulder, and dully realised they had wandered right in close to the cliff. He let his arm drag along the rock, partly for support, partly just to feel something other than sand and wind and thirst and pain.

He was starting to hear things. Voices in the wind, odd rustlings in the distance, the sound of water…

The figure ahead of him was gone.

How long had she not been there? Maybe a long time. Maybe she never had been in the first place. Had he been hallucinating? For how long?

He toppled sideways as the cliff disappeared from his side and landed face down in the sand. With aching slowness he pulled his head up.

There was green.

He pulled himself up onto his knees and stared.

In the sheltered hollow in the cliff face, there was green. Luxuriant plants, leaves rustling in the breeze, and beyond them water, in semicircular pool up against the rock. A dark stain above it marked where the stuff trickled down out of the cliff. The whole scene had an otherworldly glow… the light seemed to be coming from the water itself, lighting the leaves from beneath.

It couldn't be real. It didn't look real. Was this what happened just before you died of dehydration?

Shekinah was sitting by the pool.

Kenan dragged himself to his feet and staggered towards her.

"Uh…?" he managed.

"We can rest for a while here. Drink."

"This… not real. Can't be."

"Drink."

Kenan dropped heavily to his knees. He could feel the moisture in the air. Without consciously thinking about it, he found himself cupping his hands and reaching towards the pool, half expecting meet the texture of sand and have the whole taunting scene melt in front of his eyes.

It was wet.

The next thing he knew he was choking water down his front, and someone was chuckling.

"You shouldn't drink so fast."

Kenan laughed, full of relief, and bent down to take another drink. It was warm, but it tasted like heaven.

"How is it that there's water out here?" he asked when he had finally had enough, "And why is it glowing like that?"

"There are a lot of springs in this area, if you know where to look. Water collects in caverns in the bedrock and comes up through the cliffs. As it seeps through the rocks it gets infused with _khayim_."

"What, there's mako in the water? Is that dangerous?"

"Not in small concentrations. Quite the opposite, it should have some healing properties."

"Huh. And, not that I'm in a position pick and choose here, but anyway, how do you know there's nothing else contaminating it?"

Shekinah gestured vaguely.

"The flowers."

Kenan looked around. There were large white and yellow flowers growing in clumps around the pool. What was more, now that he was thinking more clearly he recognised them. _Lillium Priscum_, Midgar Lillies. Of course, it was one of the first lessons you learned about survival in the wilderness. Wherever those flowers grew pure white or yellow, any water nearby was safe to drink. There were few indications simpler or more certain.

Shekinah had pulled off her hood and lent down to drink, her long metallic hair trailing in the water. But as soon as she swallowed she choked harshly and clamped a hand over her mouth. Dark fluid trickled between her fingers.

"Hey, you alright?" Kenan said startled, and tried to reach out to help her. She batted his hand away, still bent over, and swallowed hard.

"I'm fine," she said, looking up at him.

Kenan skittered backwards. How had he not noticed before? Those _eyes_…

They were poison green and glowed like the water, no, stronger. And the pupils… the pupils were almond-shaped in the dull light, but in the day they must narrow to slits.

"You're… you're not human…" he breathed.

"True," Shekinah replied evenly.

The scene froze for a few seconds, Kenan's chest heaving with shock as he watched the Apostate watching him with those alien eyes.

He slumped back into the greenery.

"I'm sorry, okay? I was just… surprised."

Shekinah smiled slightly.

"It's alright. Even some of the _Akhavah_ are shocked when they first see a _Yeledim Gehenna_."

"What does that _mean_? Yeledim Gehenna? And Akhavah?"

"_Akhavah_ is our name for ourselves, what you call the Apostasy. It means "Brotherhood"."

"And Yeledim Gehenna?"

Shekinah sighed and leant her head back, looking up at the stars. For a moment he thought she wasn't going to answer. Then:

"Loosely translated, "the Children of Hell"."

Kenan decided not to ask any further about that one.

ooAoAoUoo

**ν — Era 20030317**

And then, another day of desert. The going seemed easier this time around, and it seemed Shekinah had been right about the water – Kenan was pretty sure the bruises on his back had disappeared, along with most of the aches in his limbs.

In the second half of the day the sand slowly gave way to rocky scrubland. Soon the ground was carpeted in thick, tough creepers, bleached bone white by the sun. Wherever things did grow, they didn't do it by half measures.

Left unchecked, plant growth swallowed everything on the surface. It burrowed through stone and concrete, buckled metal, choked machinery. It got everywhere and could fast get out of control, growing far too quickly to clear in time.

Once, long ago, people had tried living underground. But the power demands were too high; lighting, heating, maintaining the tunnels. All the sources of power, wind, water, the sun, were above ground, as was the food. People had moved back to the surface, and the underground cities had been abandoned.

Now there were the cities. Fortresses against the invading plant and animal life, thickly walled and with materia generated shields perpetually humming over them to keep out seeds and spores drifting on the wind.

"We should be out of Weapon's way by now. It keeps its territory clear…" Shekinah murmured, shaking Kenan out of his reverie.

"Weapon? That… huge monster thing?"

The Apostate nodded.

"Ancient guardians of the Planet," she said, and continued sounding as though she was reciting something from memory, "two on the land, two in the waters, one in the heavens, one at the heart of the earth."

"What, there's more than one of those things?" Kenan blurted. But… something that had been brewing in the back of his mind was starting to click into place.

"Long ago. Perhaps again."

"And… you _knew_ about it? You knew it was there?"

"No."

Kenan deflated slightly.

"We merely suspected."

It all clicked into place.

"You used the expedition as bait," Kenan said quietly, a strange, cold anger welling up inside him. "You sacrificed all those people just to be sure that thing was out there?!"

"It was protecting the materia. Just the two of us would have been unlikely to attracts its attention."

"You set us all up!"

Shekinah just shrugged.

That was the last straw. Suddenly there was someone to _blame_, someone to be angry at. And Kenan _was_ angry, he realised, angrier than he could ever remember being before. He didn't think, he just charged.

The next thing he knew he was landing hard several feet away on the rough, woody carpet of creeping roots. The Apostate had gone. Pulling himself up and looking around, bracing for an attack, Kenan eventually spotted a dark shape stood high on a cliff ledge above him.

"So. I guess we part ways here. It was… interesting."

He could practically hear the cruel smirk in her voice as she called down. Before he could react, she had jumped up to the top of the cliffs and over, out of sight.

"Bitch!"

It wasn't eloquent, but it was all he could think of.

Kenan stood there for a while, trying to gather his thoughts. What now? He was out of the desert, at least. So… keep north, along the cliffs? Keep looking out for springs. He would have to get somewhere eventually…

A flash of sunlight reflected briefly from somewhere far ahead, up atop the cliffs. And again, and again… a steady glint, glint, glint. A signal? Machinery? If it was machinery, it had to be moving, and that meant it hadn't been clogged up by plants yet… someone had to be keeping it clear regularly. That meant people!

He mustn't get his hopes up too high, Kenan thought. But it had to be worth investigating. He set off towards the light.

The lone glint was gradually joined by more as he got closer, and eventually the shapes became clear. Windmills, the sun rhythmically reflected off the turning sails. Working windmills meant people. Anything built outside the shields needed regular clearing to keep it functioning. There would be inspection teams at least once a week. If he stuck close to the windmills, he would surely be found at some point.

It wasn't too hard to find a climbable path up the cliff face. The creepers carpeting the ground also covered most of the rock, providing easy footholds. After a little more walking he started to hear the characteristic _whump…whump…whump_ of sails moving through the air.

When he got to the base of the nearest windmill the tiredness hit him. Relief was draining the adrenaline he had been working off up until this point. He stopped and looked up. Thick, woody vines had already nearly reached the top of the pillar, despite signs of relatively recent clearing. In just a few days they would wrap around the sails and hold them fast, and the windmill would be useless.

The steady motion of the white metallic sails above him against the blue sky was making him dizzy. He lost his balance, missed the support of the windmill column as he tried to grab it, and passed out before he hit the ground.


	3. Truce

**Disclaimer:** The FFVII world is the property of Square-Enix, as are all names, locations and terms where appropriate. I am a filthy rotten copyright infringing thief.  
**Warnings:** Language, violence, religious themes  
**Card:** Four of Swords  
**Summary:** The calm after the storm for some, but the calm before it for others.  
**Comments:** I was going to put more in this chapter, but I've had a nasty combination of illness and depression. So you'll have to wait until the next chapter for an explanation of what the agricultural stations are all about. Also, poor Musad, suckered into being eye candy. Serves him right for skinny-dipping though.

Something I forgot to mention in the previous chapters – I hope you're using a Unicode enabled browser to read this. It's not vital if you aren't, but the dates I use before some sections probably won't display correctly if you aren't. You should be seeing a letter that looks a lot like v before Era (it's the Greek letter nu). For the last section you get your first Apostate date, which should be displayed in the Hebrew script (dalet'lamed-gimel, from right to left).

**Chapter III**

_Da requiem; requietus ager bene credita reddit - Ovid_  
"Take rest; a field that has rested gives a bountiful crop."

** ν — Era 20030313**

It was bright. Too bright: he could see the light even through his closed eyes. His head was humming.

Kenan experimentally tried opening his eyes. He quickly shut them again, wincing. In the intervening period all he had been able to make out was an unfocussed white haze. The buzzing in his head amplified to a pounding, and he groaned.

There was something moving beside him.

Alright, careful. No sudden movements.

He flexed his fingers slightly, and pain shot through his left hand. Using the right instead, he tried to pull himself up from his vulnerable position on his back, opening his eyes slowly and tried to force his vision into focus.

A hot flash of pain flared up his back and into his shoulder, and he collapsed backwards with a grunt as his head spun and spots flashed in front of his eyes.

There was a firm but gentle pressure on his chest.

"Don't try to move. It's okay, you're safe now. Just relax."

Kenan's brain eventually supplied the unhelpful snippet _male_ from through the cotton wool that seemed to be filling it at the moment. He relaxed slightly, and the pressure on his chest was removed.

"Wh… where am I?" he croaked. It hurt to talk. His throat burned, and the inside of his mouth felt like sandpaper.

"In an agricultural station just north of the Fortuna Desert," the voice continued soothingly. "You're in one of our medical bays right now."

Kenan let his eyes drift open of their own accord. The glare didn't seem quite so bad now, though his vision was still blurry.

"Can't see straight," he mumbled.

"Give it time. You've been unconscious for quite a while, and badly dehydrated."

Kenan was slowly getting a feel for his surroundings. He could feel the thin, firm mattress against his back, and the IV needle in the back of his hand. The shapes around him were also slowly swimming into view. The room was small, just enough for one bed and a few pieces of medical kit. Various mysterious pieces of equipment were built into the walls, so the despite the size the room was probably close enough to being a fully self-contained clinic.

There was someone standing beside the bed. Dressed in white, but Kenan couldn't manage to focus on the man's face.

"How are you feeling?"

Kenan decided to go for honesty.

"Like crap."

"Well, that's to be expected," the man said, with a hint of a chuckle. "You were in a bad way when we found you. Don't worry though, you'll likely make a full recovery. Do you have any specific pains? Dizziness? Nausea?"

"Uh… Headache. Just aches all over. Throat hurts. Hurts to talk."

"Alright. Any dizziness now you're lying down? Just nod or shake your head."

Kenan shook his head, as gently as he could. He had half expected the room to lurch as he did so, but he barely felt a thing aside from the ache in his neck. That was probably a good thing, all things considered.

"Good. Any nausea?"

Another shake.

"Very good." Kenan caught the dim sound of scribbling as he talked. "Vision getting better?"

Nod.

"Right. Those are all good signs. Right now, I suggest you get some rest for a while. Sleep, if you can. And don't worry about anything, from the looks of things you're going to be fine."

Nod. Sleep… that sounded good.

"I'll leave you be for a while then. There's a call button just on the side of the bed by right hand, can you feel it? Don't hesitate to use it if you need anything, or if you start feeling any worse. I do have to shut down all non-essentials while they're not in use, just so you know. There'll still be power to the call system of course, but for most of the time equipment and lights will be offline."

Kenan just gave a grunt of assent. Just the thought of being able to sleep properly, that he was going to be _okay_, was making him drowsy. He felt movement beside him and heard the sound of a door softly clicking closed. Not long after the lights faded out, and the nearby whirr of machinery died down, leaving only a faint, distant hum. Kenan closed his eyes, and let that soft hum lull him to sleep.

ooAoAoUoo

It was still dark in the room when Kenan woke, and he dimly realised that he had no way of telling what time it was, or how long he had been here. He felt… much better. He still ached, but the pounding in his head had subsided and his thoughts were no longer coming to him through a thick fog.

He badly needed a drink. And a shave, by the feel of it. Just how long had he been out?

He couldn't remember much. What he did remember seemed hazy and surreal. The heat, the desert, dark shapes. Anger. He wasn't sure what had been real and what had been feverish dreaming.

He tried tracking back from the beginning. The mission… that had been real. The caverns too. The Apostates…

That was why he had been angry. It was them. They had set all this up. A trap, and they had all walked right into it.

The camp gone, that huge monster… hard as it was to believe, it had been real. He could remember the feeling of sand being sucked away under his feet, the pain of being flung against the cliff, the terrible certainty that he was going to die all too clearly.

After that it was blurry. A surge of power, and… black feathers? And the desert. He wasn't sure if he had dreamed the spring, or if any of his conversations with Shekinah had been real. His next clear memory, bizarre and surreal yet so vivid he couldn't dismiss it, was of her dark figure ahead of him, standing on vines bleached so white it looked like they were in a valley of bones and calmly confirming his suspicions as if there was nothing wrong with leading dozens of innocent people to their deaths just for… for… what?

She had been toying with him, he realised that now. She hadn't seriously expected him to survive, and he hadn't even been important enough to kill. Was that the true face of the Apostasy?

They really were monsters.

The Apostasy had always been an enigma, wandering across the planet on their own inscrutable business. Everyone knew of them, but nobody knew _about_ them. To those who lived their lives entirely within the cities they were little more than a legend, one of the darker rumours of the world outside. To those who made a living travelling, merchants, mercenaries and the like, they were a constant… not a threat, exactly, but a presence that preyed on fears deep in the back of your mind.

Most of the time they ignored you. Sometimes they would offer assistance, or at least an agreement of mutual non-interference. They occasionally travelled along the caravan routes, hitching a ride on the transit vehicles in exchange for acting as guards. That was were Kenan had seen them, and seen just how well they fought. And if you were headed somewhere dangerous, or if something particularly big and nasty was blocking your route, and you were just the right combination of brave and desperate, you could approach them. Sometimes they agreed to help. Sometimes they declined. Sometimes that declination involved extreme violence.

Sometimes you would be headed somewhere and they would tell you to turn back, with the tacit implication that there would only be one warning. And of course, sometimes people, or whole groups, just disappeared, even in well-known, reasonably safe areas. Maybe monsters got them. Maybe they stumbled into one of those situations where the Apostasy didn't give a warning.

Kenan pulled himself from that train of thought. How long would it be before someone came to check on him? What time was it, for that matter? Maybe he should try to get some more sleep, but he was feeling wide awake now. The rest seemed to have done him a lot of good. Perhaps he had just needed to switch off for a while.

He really should call someone. He was getting slightly desperate to get himself oriented. What it was, what day it was, where he was. He just hoped it wasn't the middle of the night.

Kenan slid a hand down to the side of the bed and felt along the edge for the button. There was a distant, muffled buzz as he pressed it, and after a short pause, footsteps outside. The lights hummed into life and he blinked in the harsh light. The door opened.

The man who walked in was youngish, with dusty blond hair and a white medical uniform.

"You alright?" he asked.

"Y… yeah," Kenan replied. His voice was still croaky. "I just… uh… I could really do with a drink."

The medic smiled.

"That we can certainly do. You feeling better for the sleep?"

"Yeah. Much."

"You're looking a lot brighter, certainly. Alright, I'll get you that drink. Won't be long."

"Thanks."

The lights went off even for that short time, and Kenan felt a flash of guilt. How much did it take to run one of these units?

The medic was soon back with a large glass of water, as well as a full pitcher. Kenan shakily pulled himself half upright as the pitcher was placed on the table beside him and he was handed the glass. It was cool, and he could feel a slight dampness against his fingers. Before he knew it he was spluttering on the last dregs. Damn, but that had tasted good.

"Hey, steady."

Kenan looked down at his hands, darkly tanned against the white sheets.

"Thanks," he muttered.

"Quite alright. You want another?"

"I mean… thanks. For everything. For finding me. For looking after me." He gave a single, dry sob. "Ah, shit…"

"Hey… you must have been through hell." The medic sighed and ran a hand through his hair. "I won't lie to you, you were dying of dehydration when the maintenance team found you. They were hardly going to just leave you out there."

"Maintenance teams?"

"For the windmills. We've got a battery up on the cliffs, they supply part of the power to this site. The rest's solar. Well, anyway, that's where you were found."

Something flashed across Kenan's mind.

"Did they find… anyone else?"

The medic looked uncomfortable for a second, then shook his head sadly.

"No. I'm sorry."

"No, I wasn't expecting… never mind."

There was an awkward silence.

"Hey," Kenan said after a while, "could I, uh, ask you some things? Like how long I've been here. What day it is. What time it is, for that matter. I… kinda need to get my bearings a bit."

"Sure. Ask anything you want," the medic replied, leaning down and pulling a ledge out from the wall. He sat down. "Heh, for starters, I haven't even introduced myself yet. Kyle nnnnn, I'm the medic for this facility. Time is… about quarter past four in the afternoon. Date is the thirteenth of March, you've been here for about a week."

"A week, huh? Damn… Oh, I'm Kenan. Kenan Danes."

Kyle looked slightly sheepish.

"Actually, we know. You do carry ID, remember?"

Kenan found one hand automatically travelling up to his neck. Nothing.

"Don't worry, all your belongings are safe in one of our lockers. And your name's all we know." The medic grinned conspiratorially. "Quite a mystery, you've got the whole place speculating. Usually not much to talk about around here but plants and what complete bastards chocobos are."

"Plants, huh? Sounds like back home…" Kenan blinked and shook his head slightly. He must in a worse state than he thought to let that slip out. "Where is "here", anyway?" he added quickly.

"An agricultural station. Not a big huge place, we're mostly research based, but it's comfy enough."

"An agricultural station? This close to the desert?"

Kyle grinned again. It was slightly infectious.

"Ah-ah, Foundation secrets, and all that. Actually, no, it's something pretty technical. Soil types and mako flows. Don't understand it myself. I'm a medic, not a botanist."

"So, stuff actually grows out here? _Useful_ stuff?"

"Sure does."

ooAoAoUoo

ד׳לג

Crystalline trees glowed softly against the dark sky. The air was cold, rustling through the undergrowth and carrying with it the sound of water.

The undergrowth was flowers. As far as could be seen, a carpet of dark leaves and flowers so deep purple they looked pure black.

_Lillium Priscum_. The Ancient Lilly.

Deep, still pools broke the expanse. The flowers grew right up to the banks, dark water lapping against hanging leaves.

A pale figure broke the surface of one of the pools, water cascading off sculpted white flesh and long, silvery hair. The man moved gracefully through the waist-deep water, barely disturbing the surface.

He didn't even turn his head as his snatched the pebble that had been aimed at it out of the air.

"So you were paying attention, Musad," Shekinah said, sitting down amongst the flowers by the edge of the pool.

"But of course, _akhoti_," the Apostate replied dreamily. He tossed the pebble into the water and looked over his shoulder at her. "You're almost as bad as Barak."

"Harsh, _akhi_."

Musad skimmed a hand over the surface of the water, setting a complex pattern of ripples into motion.

"So, Gedulah is gone. What happened out there? We sensed… power."

"Straight to the point. That's not like you."

"There remains the possibility that I will have to kill you. It would be best not to avoid the question, Shekinah."

Shekinah bowed her head slightly, half closing her eyes.

"Weapon has been active. It came to defend the materia deposits."

"As we suspected. It would explain why the desert has been expanding, and why Mother avoids the place. Continue."

"The Foundation expedition was wiped out. We attempted to force Weapon into retreat. Gedulah was… badly injured. He lost control."

"Weapon killed Gedulah?"

"I killed Gedulah."

Musad went very still for a moment.

"Impressive."

"Hardly. He was already injured."

"Hm. So, did Gedulah destroy Weapon?"

"I don't think so. It retreated. Considering the damage it took, it would be forced to go dormant unless the Planet is actively sustaining it."

"That is… for the best, perhaps. If Weapon had been destroyed, it could have triggered a reaction. We do not want that."

"And what about the Foundation?"

"Were there any survivors?"

"One."

"And would that one report back to the Foundation?"

"Unknown."

Musad shrugged.

"Either way, they will get the message. We are not to be trifled with. We will not suffer interference."

He moved to the bank a little way from where Shekinah was sitting, gathering his hair into a loose ponytail and squeezing the water out of it as he went.

"Bifrost is getting busy," he said to no one in particular, "And tense. Everyone is on edge." Once on the bank he raised his arms and his robes materialised around him, clinging to his wet skin. "Things are stirring," he continued, "but we can't see their shape. The Planet may have revived Weapon. Strange flows are appearing in the _Nahar_. And Mother has been very quiet. She is probably… watching the situation closely."

Shekinah looked up at the stars.

"The world feels like the atmosphere before a storm," she murmured.

"Everyone feels it. Even the _Avedoth_ are getting restless."

"What do we do?"

"…nothing. Not until Mother wills it. Or rather, we do as we always do. This may pass."

Musad bent down and scooped up a small ball of black from the undergrowth. It kweh'd sleepily, and ruffled its downy feathers. Shekinah raised an eyebrow.

"Pakhad is going to kill you when he sees that."

"Good thing he's up at Bifrost then."


End file.
